Beginner books Y1

[Spud90]

DS is Year 1 and on RWI blue books. His reading and comprehension is great but he's getting very bored with the books he's reading from school which is putting him off books altogether. I've tried chapter books for him to read at home but he's put off with the amount of words compared to his RWI books. He loves Julia Donaldson books and reads them to himself but I've tried early reader books like horrid henry and he says they're boring.

Basically, I'm looking for books he will find fun and that will ease him into chapter books. He loves animals, numbers/maths, magic. I'm trying to avoid the comic style books. Any recs please?

We don’t use rwi, so no idea what blue equates to, but if you are almost ready for chapter books but struggling with stamina, the Claude series might be good? Short chapters, slightly larger font

Also, magazines might be worth a look - lots of pictures and there are usually a mix of more traditional articles with blurb-style shorter form pieces that are less intimidating. Mine are pouring over national geographic junior in the car most mornings. Similarly the usbourne non-fiction books tend to be more blurb style. DD borrowed ‘24 hours in the stone age’ and ended up reading it mostly on her own.

is there a reason you want to avoid comic style? Not all of these are ‘dog man’, although I would argue that any voluntary reading is desirable. We have a couple about Egyptian and Greek myths that are comic style, for example - the extra pictures help pull them in and keep them going rather than getting stuck on specific words or sections that are above their level.

At this sort of age, my son read the Usborne Beginners books. They are non fiction books, and cover all sorts of topics like history, natural history, geology to name just a few.

Reading books about things he was interested in made his reading come on in leaps and bounds.

My Y1 dd loves

Claude,
Billy B brown (perhaps slightly girly but lovely stories and very easy chapter books)
Zoey and Saafaras
The trouble with Daisy

These are the ones she'll pick up and read herself when she's in the mood. Don't forget fact books too they're a different style of reading and can be just as engaging. Mine was lecturing me the other day about how hot water goes to the top and cold sinks to the bottom because she read it in a book about the ocean 🤣 Do keep reading TO him as well. So important for keeping up their love of books

I think it's ORT purple or stage 8. I'm not sure if he is ready for chapter books yet but definitely ready for something in between. I do have a Claude book and a years worth of nat geo kids that belonged to DS(12) stashed away somewhere so I'll dig those out and give them a try!

I want to avoid comic book styles because my oldest went on to them and didn't really seem to get used to books without pictures. He doesn't like reading and the older he gets the harder it is to get him to read. I have a bookcase full of books he's never read because he was only interested in the comic book style ones.

Is blue books quite advanced for that age, it looks like it's the second to last level? My DS is only 3 so not really reading yet, but he is loving the Winnie and Wilbur books (I read them to him), they sort of have chapters and look like more grown up books, although do have interesting black and white pictures. Maybe he'd like those?

Blue is the expected stage for the end of the year in Y1. He probably end the uesr on grey which would be a greater d2pth reader. I would follow his interests. And there is now data on how good comic books are for reading development.

We have some Winnie and Wilbur picture books and he enjoys them so I'll look at the chapter books too. I didn't realise they did them!

Yes, blue is the second to last level of RWI but they expect them to have finished all levels by the end of Y2. He's been moved onto grey level now so hopefully they will be less boring for him.

We've got the kitty books and some "the three little" books which he's really enjoying. We tried daisy and the trouble with London which I thought he would enjoy because he loves going to London but he said it was boring. I found some beginner Roald Dahl books in the cupboard and he's enjoying the magic finger.

DS likes Rainbow Fairies, Mr Majeeka, Dotty the Detective and 13 Storey Treehouse.

We found the national geographic readers good at that point as there are three levels (not sure about how the rwi levels translate) but my daughter really liked the variety and non-fiction themes.

My y1 child has now passed RWI and I agree, the books are boring for those that want to read further. My suggestion is fact books, if he finds fiction/chapter books boring the facts may be a good starting point.
My little one loves horrible histories books. Myths and legends are also quite a nice way to start chapter books, 2/3 pages of a story then on to the next story rather than another chapter.

Also dont disregard comic style books, they are wonderful for reluctant readers, it's also a lot easier for some children with learning disabilities to read from them because of the pictures. It is not a bad thing to only read from them.

Is your local library an option? I take DC there and let them pick anything they want - they open the book and see if it’s something they can attempt to read. They don’t have to read the whole thing - if harder, we split the reading and they often whizz through easier ones alone.

School reading books are generally so dull, having choice has definitely helped both read for pleasure rather than it being a chore

DS is 5 & in Yr1. Not sure on his book band as he's on Little Wandle rather than RWI.
Books he enjoys are:
Wigglesbottom Primary series
Billy & the Mini Monsters
He also likes picture books & non fiction books.

in order of increasing difficulty:
the happy families books by Allan Ahlberg (20 of them, may be cheaper to buy as a complete set)
The Gaskitt books, also by Allan Ahlberg (4 of them, ditto)
the Ottoline books by Chris Riddell (4 of them)
Also, the Collins big cat books go much higher than RWI and are less dull.

Billy the monster
Claude

my y1 started an Omar book tonight and loves it!!

Em, my kids loved these books:

https://www.searchgoodbooks.com/books/little-nuts-big-journey

Go to a library and let him choose. My DDs did this. Loads to choose from. Our infant school had a library too. In YR DD brought home Samuel Pepys diary about the great fire of London. She couldn’t read much of it but she liked the story! We found she liked history stories. Phonics books seem very dull. DD also brought home books about farming, helicopters and ships. Lots of non fiction. It’s all reading!!

Oxford Owl is free and you get access to all their early readers.

Honestly the best thing you can do is read to him, read him the more challenging and exciting books so he maintains a love of reading it will encourage his vocabulary and phonological knowledge.And it will motivate him to learn himself and read for pleasure.

Reading is reading, comic books, non-fiction, Ripley's Believe it or not, Guinness World Records it all counts. Build regular library visits in to your routine. Books formatted for dyslexic readers have more space per page, more space between letters and words which might help as it's less overwhelming.

My year one reader finds the phonics books boring except some non fiction ones. She also likes Julia Donaldson. She chooses some from the library. Really liked 'rainbow gray'. She also enjoyed reading me men and little miss books at my parents house.